#7 - Best Supernatural Book Cover - Under Different Stars - (REGINA WAMBA of Mae I Design <--she's completely amazing. Here's a link to her FB page!) *I also want to note that the cover photograph was shot by AARON DRAPER

#10 - Best Edited Book of the Year - Under Different Stars - (GLORIA LUTZ of my freaking mom!!! I also want to note that Tamar Rydzinski was a co editor for this book as well.)

(I couldn't be more thrilled about this one. This will be me in the audience when I hear them announce my mom's name as a nominee:)

(Good luck, Mom!)

#13 - Best Supernatural Hero/ Shero - Kricket Hollowell

#14 - Best Villain - Kyon Ensin

#18 - Best Book Hangover - Under Different Stars

#25 - Best Supernatural Series of the Year - Under Different Stars

#27 - Book of the Year - Under Different Stars

#30 - Author of the Year - Amy A. Bartol

Can you believe that? It's insane!!!

Please vote HERE now for your favorites in all 30 categories. Thank you!!!

I also want to thank UtopYa Con organizers and staff for this amazing honor and my peers for your generous nominations. It means the world to me. I'm grateful. Good luck to all the nominees.

In the last week of June, I drove from Michigan to Nashville, Tennessee to participate in one of my favorite events, UtopYA. UtopYA Con 2013, is a convention for female authors of paranormal stories involving romance, dystopian futures, vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, and demigods, (and everything in between), and the fans who love them. It took place on the summer solstice...in Nashville...can you say, "OMG!!! HOW DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE HERE? THE HEAT, MY GOD, THE HEAT!"

When I stepped out of my car, I could cut the humidity with a knife. It didn't help that I'd been writing all spring in an air-conditioned house. This is the reason I have crazy Einstein hair in all of the pictures I'm going to post below. Suffice to say, it was hella hot, but Nashville is so incredibly amazing and I was so excited to be there that I got over it quickly. (My hair never did.)

In reality, I wouldn't miss this conference for the world. I absolutely love UtopYA Con for one simple reason: it helped me launch my marketing career as an author in 2012. The information, techniques, and networking opportunities afforded at that one event have led to some of my dearest friendships, collaborations, marketing strategies, and a whole host of other unique opportunities that could not have been gained elsewhere.

I went a few days early so that I could spend time with two of my very best friends, Georgia Cates and Shelly Crane. Georgia and I met for the first time in person at UtopYA Con 2012. Our connection was instant. Since then, we've been nearly inseparable. Most of my signings are with Georgia; we're roomies and it's sort of ridiculous that we always show up at events with at least one identical item of clothing. We don't shop together. It just happens. Georgia writes paranormal fiction, but she has recently crossed over to the adult contemporary romance genre and has had HUGE success with her Beauty Series.

I love Shelly Crane's guts. She's the author of the Significance Series (among a ton of others). We first met through Twitter. She followed me one day, and I about lost my mind over it. I private messaged her with this tweet: Umm, do you know who you are because I do?!!! She overlooked my tweet's bad grammar and we became friends.

From that day on, I've badgered her with questions about writing, publishing, and marketing. She finally decided to create a secret group on Facebook for us to chat. She pulled me into it and then added Quinn Loftis (Grey Wolves Series). From there, Georgia Cates (The Vampire Agape Series), Angeline Kace (Vampire Born Trilogy), Michelle Leighton (Blood Like Poison, Wild Ones), Rachel Higginson (The Star-Crossed Series), Samantha Young (Fire Spirits Series, On Dublin Street), and Lila Felix (Love and Skate Series) have found their way into the group. We call ourselves the Indie Hellcats (because when the group started, we were all Indie authors, and if you know anything about Indies it's this: once an Indie, always an Indie at heart.) We chat online pretty much every day. I'm grateful for the Hellcats' guidance and support. I cherish it.

On Thursday night, I was thrilled to be able to go to dinner with most of the Hellcats. (Samantha Young was sleeping off jet lag after her crazy flight from Scotland and Quinn had family obligations that kept her occupied. We missed them like crazy!!) **NOTE: If anyone has the opportunity to go to dinner with Michelle Leighton, jump on that! She is the funniest girl on the PLANET!!

From left to right: Angeline Kace, Michelle Leighton, and Amy A. Bartol (We're really not possessed, it just my bad camera phone.)

Thursday night was magical for another reason. After dinner with the Hellcats, I bumped into the keynote speaker of the conference, Jennifer Armentrout, in the lobby of my hotel (she's the author of the Covenant Series and the Lux Series.) She's brilliant and funny, and it was something I will never forget. I really enjoyed her speech on Friday morning. Like most authors who have achieved her level of success, it was a tale of risk, perseverance, drive, cunning, and the keen ability to adapt to the constant changes in the publishing industry by recognizing new trends and opportunities.

Jennifer Armentrout and Janet Wallace

Once the conference began on Friday, I finally met the writing team behind Riana Lucas. We've chatted online since 2011 when our debut novels, Inescapable and Poppy (The Deadly Flower Series), first released on Amazon, but finally meeting Nichole and Angela in person was amazing!

Nichole, Amy A. Bartol, and Angela.

Friday and Saturday were absolutely insane. I was on 5 panels at UtopYA this year: Music As Muse, Blog Your Face Off, Casting Your Characters, The Swagger of Swag, and Story Frenzy. The picture below is a particular favorite of mine because, not only was I on a panel with BRILLIANT authors, I also met the cover model, Collin Patrick, from Frankie Rose's The Hope Series. Swoon!! (Look at me!! I could hardly look at him because I had to act professional. Every time I glanced his way I'd lose my train of thought.)

Here's another pic of Collin. He's obscenely handsome. He should do the world a favor and eat a donut or two. Am I wrong?

Collin Patrick, cover model for Frankie Rose's The Hope Series.

Another crazy panel that I was on was called Story Frenzy. This is where the panelists and the audience collectively create the outline of a story. Once the basis of the story is hashed out, the panelist then leave the conference and continue to work on the story. How do we do that, you may ask? We've decided that, unlike last year where they used Twitter and hashtags to continue the story, this year a Tumblr site will be created to write the collaborative story with each author contributing a scene in a round-robin type fashion. I haven't gotten my official instructions on this yet, but when I do, I'll post it here so that you can follow the story. I may need your input on it so I'll probably pole you from time to time to get your ideas.

But in between the panels, I had a chance to hang out with my pals. I went to lunch with Samantha Young, Georgia Cates, and Shelly Crane. Since I'm such an excellent driver, I ran a red light and had to explain to Samantha that people are really super friendly in Nashville. They like to honk at people from Scotland to welcome them to our country. It's just southern hospitality. I don't think she bought it.

From left to right: Tiffany King, Samantha Young, and Georgia Cates

And just when I thought I couldn't love Samantha more, she shows up in a RAMONES t-shirt. Gah!!! She's epic!! By the way, you have to excuse this picture. They caught us while we were laughing our faces off, so we sort of look insane. I'm standing next to Tammy Blackwell, who is possibly one of the coolest people on the planet. She wrote The Timber Wolves Trilogy. You should check it out. Tiffany King is hilarious, too. Her most recent book is entitled No Attachments.

From left to right: Tammy Blackwell, Amy A. Bartol, Samantha Young, and Tiffany King

I spent the rest of my time sharing an author table and signing books with my amazing friends Christie Rich and Nancy Straight. So many fan-freaking-tastic readers came to chat with us!!!

Christie Rich and Nancy Staright

There were so many great moments and incredible people at UtopYA Con 2013 that I can't possibly talk about them all. UtopYA Con is anti-exclusivity. By that, I mean: authors hang out with bloggers, who hang out with fans, who hand out with exhibitors, and no one is excluded. People travel in clumps. Thus, the motto generated there: Expand your clump.

Expand your clump!

By the time the awards ceremony rolled around on Saturday night my hair had grown to epic heights of crazy, but there had been no way I was missing the event. I knew a secret going into the awards: Amanda Havard, the talented author of the Survivor Series, had been covertly working on several songs for the show; one of which she and I co-wrote based on the Premonition Series entitled "Darkness in the Light." (And when I say co-wrote, I mean she basically wrote it with me saying, "That's freaking crazy-good, Amanda. Go with that.") When Amanda sang that night, she gave me goose bumps. I'm in awe of her talent.

I have another secret, look for an announcement on July 25th regarding our collaboration!!! (I'm not supposed to say more than that or I would!!)

Amanda Havard in the studio

So, now I need to write about your part in all of this. (I saved this until close to the end because I'm already totally bawling while I'm writing this, like I knew I would). It's the most wonderful thing in the world to get to do something that I love. I crawl inside my imagination and play around with my messed-up masterpieces that I once thought would only make sense to me. I've been creating worlds since I was a kid, hiding in them, hosting banquets for characters of my own making. I had no idea when I finally decided to write them down that other people would be able to find their way into those worlds, too. But you peeked in the bolthole, and then slipped through, and now they're yours as much as they are mine. That's more than I could've asked for out of life. But you went one better. You collectively got together and decided you'd give me more gifts. Because of you and your votes, Incendiary won awards for Best Book Cover of the Year and Best Villain of the Year: Brennus! Thank you for these honors. I see them as a testament to your generosity. I am extremely grateful.

UtopYA Con 2013 awards for Best Villain: Brennus and Best Book Cover of the Year: Incendiary

One of the luckiest days of my life was when I met Janet Wallace, the massive talent behind UtopYA and her marketing company Social Deviants. She allowed me to participate in the awesomeness that is UtopYA. For that, I will always be grateful. If you attend the conference, you'll be sucked into the "Janet Wallace radius" where talented people tend to gravitate and everything travels at light speed while you're wrung out and stretched to meet your creative potential...and you'll leave thinking, That was awesome. I think I'll go take over the world now.

If you're a writer, an aspiring writer, or someone who just wants to hang out with writers, go to this event in 2014. You won't be disappointed. Tickets are on sale NOW!! Get them HERE: UtopYA Con 2014!

UtopYA Con 2014. Don't miss it!

I'm currently working on a short story that will be featured in an anthology. Proceeds of the anthology will benefit the conference next year. The story has to be about aliens! I'm going to have so much fun with it. The only problem is the word count can only be 8K to 10K. My shortest Premonition book is 140K. I don't think they realized that when they asked me. I'm sort of laughing my head off trying to channel my inner O.Henry. Too bad that it's my inner Hemingway with his freaky six-toed cats that keep showing up. Like Tolstoy: War and I Come In Peace, Baby.

The nominations for the Second Annual UtopYA Con 2013 Awards were announced! INCENDIARY was nominated in 3 categories!! YOU CAN VOTE!!!!The nominees were preselected, but voting for the winner is open to the general public!!

INCENDIARY is up for awards in the following categories: #6 BEST BOOK COVER OF THE YEAR #9 MOST INNOVATIVE MARKETING OF THE YEAR #11 BEST VILLAIN OF THE YEAR: BRENNUS

Thank you UtopYA and all the UtopYA Panelists for nominating Incendiary for these awards!ANDTHANK YOU, MY READERS, FOR SUPPORTING ME!I'M TRULY GRATEFUL!

For the past few days I've been in Nashville Tennessee. I traveled there to attend the UtopYA 2012 Con, a convention designed by Janet Wallace to connect readers of young adult paranormal romance novels with the authors who write them (and vice versa). I didn't know what to expect. I thought I would be participating in a few panel discussions about writing and then I'd sign a few books. That happened, but that was secondary. Here's what really happened: I met the kindest, most generous people and I also began to really understand how absolutely INSANELY fortunate I am to have you as readers of my stories (Yeah, you are so completely awesome, but I'll get to that in a second because I want to try to write this without bawling through the entire thing). The industry that I have become a part of is a strange creature; just when I think I may understand it, I find out there is so much more to learn (and by that I mean, I have barely scratched the surface of what there is to know.) I used to think that it would be enough just to write a story--a good story--a compelling story. In a way, I was right. That story brought amazing readers into my life. One has but to read the comments on this blog to see just how creative and unique you are. I value you because trust me when I tell you that you are a rarity. In a business as competitive as this one, having you to come "home" to is a blessing.

But, I'm learning that it may not be enough to just write a story that people want to read. I was in Nashville on the campus of Vanderbilt University with a hoard of writers who can write good stories--captivating stories. The difference between some of them and me is that I seemed to have found people to help me along the way. I had friends who read my rough drafts and told me what they liked and what they hated. I have a mom who can go toe-to-toe with any copy editor out there in a grammar contest--and win. I have friends like Volatalistic Phil and Rob Guthrie who followed me on Twitter and helped me figure out the social site. (Thank you, Rob, for letting me know that someone isn't really saying nasty things about me, so I shouldn't blatantly follow that link and give them my twitter password). And I have an incredibly supportive husband who keeps pushing me to learn every technical process I can.

My lucky streak continued at UtopYA. I again found people willing to help me learn what I need to know, not only to be a better writer, but to be more successful at getting my work to you, the reader. I discovered some very valuable tips from this conference; for example, Angeline Kace, author of Descended by Blood, shared that you can get your computer to read to you. This is HUGE when editing! Georgia Cates (my roommate at the Con) and I each sat on our beds with our computers on our laps figuring out how to do that (for directions on how to do it, see * below). Georgia is the author of the Vampire Agape series, if you haven't read it, do. Abbi Glines, the author of The Vincent Boys & Existence, told us that she makes playlists that her characters listen to by using playlist.com! ENTIRE PLAYLISTS!!! FOR CHARACTERS!! (You know I'm doing that now—as soon as I can—start thinking about it so you can give me suggestions for each character.) Abbi also writes her own song lyrics and has musicians record the music. (She's a rockstar!) Kelly Simmons of InkSlingerPR gave me some brilliant advice on marketing (which I plan to share in later posts). And then there's Heather Robbins, "SupaGurl," who taught me so many things, but she mostly taught me about the passion of book bloggers for the stories they read. I'm truly awed by it and by her. (You can check out her blog: http://supagurlbooks.blogspot.com) I also made a few friends at the conference; to name them all would be difficult (but I will say I'm looking at you M. Leighton, Tiffany King, K.A. Kunz, Raine Thomas, Quinn Loftis.) Now, let's get back to you again, my readers (and here is where I'm already in tears). It was because of your generosity that the Premonition Series received honors for Best Villain and Best Debut Novel-Inescapable. YOU voted for it. I'm extremely grateful to you because more than the awards, it's like you reached out to me and gave me a hug. So, basically, what I'm saying is: these are ours—this all happened through your generosity. THANK YOU! (I'm such a baby, I'm totally crying.) I also want to thank Jamie, April, and Susan for all of your help and support at UtopYA.You guys rocked it :D

I won the minute I stepped foot in Nashville and met all of the brilliant people at UtopYA. The awards were icing. I've heard it said that no one gets to the top alone. I'm no where near the top, but neither am I alone.

* In Mac, you click on the apple icon on your toolbar, then "System Preferences," then under "System" click on "Speech," then click on "Text to Speech," then check the box that says: "Speak selected text when key is pressed." Now, highlight text that you want read to you and then press the Option+Esc keys together.BTW, Georgia and I decided "Alex" has the best robot voice.)

Amy A. Bartol

Writer of urban fantasy/ romantic suspense, a lover of things made in Detroit--though not a Yooper, I say: "Ya" to da U.P., eh--I'm part Irish (the good part - do ye need more tellin'?)--a fan of the Red Wings--and also of red wings.